Washing and bleaching compound.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRIEDRICH L. BARTELT, OF BRISLINGTON, ENGLAND.

WASHING AND BLEACHING COMPOUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 674,593, dated May 21, 1901..

Application filed October 29, 1900.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG BARTELT, manufacturer, of Brislington, near Bristol, in the county of Somerset, England, have invented a certain new and useful Washing and Bleaching Compound, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to produce a material for use in the washing of textile materials and bleaching of vegetable fiber Without the necessity of employing soap or saponifiable matter.

In carrying out my invention I employasilicate of an alkali-say sodium or potassium in order to hold in suspension the soluble and insoluble particles of matter during the operation of washing and to emulsify the fatty or greasy matters contained in the fabric to be treated.

To effect the cleansing and bleaching operations, I take a solution of a caustic alkali say hydroxid of sodium or potassiumto which I add metallic zinc or zinc dust, or it may be a zinc salt-say zinc sulfatefor the reason that the zinc acts highly beneficially upon the cellulose of the fiber. By experiment I have found that the following combination gives very high resultsthat is to say, take a lye of hydroxid of sodium having a strength of about 15.4: Baum and add to this about five per cent. of the quantity of lye of the zinc, or, if a salt of zinc is used, a quantity yielding the same percentage of zinc. The lye is heated until the zinc has been dissolved, when I allow the whole to settle and cool down, so that any impurities may be precipitated. Afterward I draw off the clear liquor, with the zinc in solution, and to thirtyfive parts of this liquor I add thirty five parts, by volume, of a solution of silicate of sodium of a strength of about 59.5 Baum,

Serial No. 34,868. (No specimens.)

stirring the whole well until it is thoroughly mixed, when it is ready for use in a liquid form. I find it, however, most convenient for commercial purposes to produce the prodduct in a non-liquid form, and to this end I add to the above-mentioned solution carbon: ate of an alkali--say sodium when the lye is of sodium (or potassium when the lye is of potassium)in such quantity as to make the mass stiff or pasty, and I then allow it to set apd harden. I may here remark that I do not wish to bind myself to the exact quantities and degrees of strength above mentioned, as these quantities may be varied according to requirements; but I have found that the quantities and degrees of strength above mentioned give very high results for ordinary purposes. In like manner I may find it unnecessary under certain circumstances to use the zinc, as the hydroxid solution in itself has a very powerful bleaching action when in combination with alkaline silicate.

A compound produced as above described has very high bleaching, cleansing, and purifying qualities and may be used Without soap for washing cotton or linen or other vegetable fibers or textiles.

What I claim is- 1. A washing and bleaching compound consisting of a solution of zinc in an excess of caustic alkali, a silicate of an alkali and a carbonate of an alkali, substantially as de scribed.

2. A washing and bleaching compound consisting of a solution of zinc in caustic alkali and a silicate of an alkali, substantially as herein described.

F. L. BARTELT. Witnesses:

L. REDDIE,

H. E. NEWTON. 

